Mr. Home Repair I’m Not
Mr. Home Repair I’m Not
By Allan Olson
In what was supposed to be a quiet, easy night at home with just four boys in the house (one nephew in tow), I ended up breaking the bleach out for the second night in a row and fighting with my dryer.
It all started with the humidity – at least that’s what I’m blaming it on. We kept smelling the moisture in the air in our finished basement, and finally we pinned down the real source of the problem. The floor in a hall closet downstairs was wet, or rather, sweating (like most of us) from the heat and humidity. It was not the only thing damp. So were our DVD stands and other items we had in there. Some mold (yuck!) was found on the walls.
The best cure for mold, I’m told, is to scrub it with bleach. Personally, I don’t like the smell of it, and due to allergies of chlorine/bleach in the family, I can’t remember bleach being present in any of our dwellings in the 13 years my wife and I have been married. After a quick trip to the convenience store to purchase a bottle, I was put to work scrubbing, primarily because it affects me the least.
On the positive side, my wife found a window that our air conditioning unit will fit in, and with the dehumidifier function we are hoping it will help with the excess moisture problem.
Now, back to the beginning of the story.
It was just the boys and I at home when the wife called and asked me to put something in the washer. No big deal; washing clothes is an easy task for just about anyone to handle.
I discovered that the dryer had come partially away from the wall where it had been positioned. Upon moving the dryer, I discovered some clothing items that had fallen behind. I had Nikolai remove them for me, being the skinny minnie that he is. Those items were wet, and they got tossed when I noticed mold on them as well as the wall behind the dryer.
Great, I thought. Here we go again – another date with the bleach.
I carefully moved the dryer forward, but it didn’t matter. The hose came off. I was not happy. I distinctly remember battling with that when we moved into the house and we were setting it up. I gave up and passed it on to one of the brothers helping at that time.
Well, I gladly would have passed on the job this time, too.
It’s really frustrating when a dryer hose can kick my butt. The hose kept crinkling and ripping, no matter what I did or how careful I was, and I had to keep cutting another portion of it off in my effort to make it fit. Battling this dryer hose took me way longer than I care to admit before we finally came to a mutual understanding. Did I win the battle? Well . . . let’s just call it a draw.
I left the room a couple times, I used a few words I probably shouldn’t have, and the boys were quick to my beck and call if I needed something (they didn’t want me to be crabby at them).
So as it now stands, the dryer is hooked up to the hose and it is blowing warm air back to the outside in the correct spot. Is it hooked up so it won’t disconnect again? No, probably not. I very carefully pushed the dryer back against the wall and moved the washer again, but I was very afraid that if I bumped the dryer wrong, the hose would come disconnected again and I would get very angry with it.
If it loses its proper fit again, I will pass it on to someone else. In the meantime, I will ignore it and pretend all is well in the Dryer world.
By Allan Olson
In what was supposed to be a quiet, easy night at home with just four boys in the house (one nephew in tow), I ended up breaking the bleach out for the second night in a row and fighting with my dryer.
It all started with the humidity – at least that’s what I’m blaming it on. We kept smelling the moisture in the air in our finished basement, and finally we pinned down the real source of the problem. The floor in a hall closet downstairs was wet, or rather, sweating (like most of us) from the heat and humidity. It was not the only thing damp. So were our DVD stands and other items we had in there. Some mold (yuck!) was found on the walls.
The best cure for mold, I’m told, is to scrub it with bleach. Personally, I don’t like the smell of it, and due to allergies of chlorine/bleach in the family, I can’t remember bleach being present in any of our dwellings in the 13 years my wife and I have been married. After a quick trip to the convenience store to purchase a bottle, I was put to work scrubbing, primarily because it affects me the least.
On the positive side, my wife found a window that our air conditioning unit will fit in, and with the dehumidifier function we are hoping it will help with the excess moisture problem.
Now, back to the beginning of the story.
It was just the boys and I at home when the wife called and asked me to put something in the washer. No big deal; washing clothes is an easy task for just about anyone to handle.
I discovered that the dryer had come partially away from the wall where it had been positioned. Upon moving the dryer, I discovered some clothing items that had fallen behind. I had Nikolai remove them for me, being the skinny minnie that he is. Those items were wet, and they got tossed when I noticed mold on them as well as the wall behind the dryer.
Great, I thought. Here we go again – another date with the bleach.
I carefully moved the dryer forward, but it didn’t matter. The hose came off. I was not happy. I distinctly remember battling with that when we moved into the house and we were setting it up. I gave up and passed it on to one of the brothers helping at that time.
Well, I gladly would have passed on the job this time, too.
It’s really frustrating when a dryer hose can kick my butt. The hose kept crinkling and ripping, no matter what I did or how careful I was, and I had to keep cutting another portion of it off in my effort to make it fit. Battling this dryer hose took me way longer than I care to admit before we finally came to a mutual understanding. Did I win the battle? Well . . . let’s just call it a draw.
I left the room a couple times, I used a few words I probably shouldn’t have, and the boys were quick to my beck and call if I needed something (they didn’t want me to be crabby at them).
So as it now stands, the dryer is hooked up to the hose and it is blowing warm air back to the outside in the correct spot. Is it hooked up so it won’t disconnect again? No, probably not. I very carefully pushed the dryer back against the wall and moved the washer again, but I was very afraid that if I bumped the dryer wrong, the hose would come disconnected again and I would get very angry with it.
If it loses its proper fit again, I will pass it on to someone else. In the meantime, I will ignore it and pretend all is well in the Dryer world.
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